In optical systems, jitter undermines image quality. For example, human movement is a common source of jitter in portable optical devices, such as handheld video cameras and telescopic devices (e.g., binoculars, rifle scopes, telescopes, and the like). Telescopic devices that are capable of high magnification of a viewing area also magnify the jitter. In certain applications, such as rifle scopes or optical spotting, such jitter can adversely impact image quality and/or accuracy. In an example involving rifle scopes, human jitter can introduce dramatic variations in terms of minutes of angle (MOA) with respect to close range targets, and can introduce even more dramatic variations with long range targets. For example, at a distance of 500 yards, variations of 2 to 15 minutes of angle can cause a shooter to miss his/her target by up to 75 inches or more. One MOA can cause the shooter to miss a target by 15 inches at 1500 yards.
To reduce the effect of jitter, some optical devices include support structures that operate to dampen such jitter. In other instances, mechanical transducers and structures are introduced to actively stabilize the optical device and/or the associated support structure (such as a rifle). While such active stabilization components may reduce jitter, they can reduce the portability of the optical device in terms of both increased weight and increased power consumption.